For a moment he sat there in stunned silence. What were the odds? What were the chances that they would be here right now? Adriana noticed the momentary change in Bjorn and turned to see who walked through the door. Based on his description she was fairly sure she knew who they were.

  The spell was broken half a second later and the stunned silence was replaced with a burning rage. He had to get his hands on the pair, he had to make them pay for what they did to him, what they took. Bjorn moved to get to his feet but Adriana’s hand shot out and latched on to his wrist. Her grip was surprisingly strong, stronger than it had been months ago. Her time at Blackrock Bay had helped her change into something more than she was.

  Bjorn’s eyes shot down at the young woman who was getting between him and his prize. Between him and justice. Her eyes however weren’t concerned and weak like he expected from someone who was getting in his way. They were dark, and filled with anger, her temperament was close to the same as Bjorn’s was in that moment. That gave Bjorn pause.

  She whispered quietly enough that it was difficult for Bjorn to pick out let alone everyone else in the room. “Be smart about this. Not here, not now. We need to find out more first.”

  Her words cut through the red haze that settled on his vision and he relaxed and sat back down.

  The guard who they found out his name was Freedrick was well on his way to being drunk. After he got shot in the back he was given the rest of the evening off, so he was celebrating. He hadn’t noticed the exchange between Bjorn and Adriana. He did however notice their focus on Luna and Ramsey.

  “Ah them. That Luna is quite the looker isn’t she? I have never seen an anthropomorph before. I don’t know why but those fuzzy cat ears on the top of her head really do it for me.”

  Bjorn had to unclench his jaw to speak. “How long have they been here?”

  “Hmmm. I don’t rightly know. Maybe 6 days, maybe a week and a half. I met them around a week ago. They have been a great help in defending the city. The goblin attack he faced tonight wasn’t the first one we have had. They have been attacking at odd hours for the last 2 weeks. The first attack had some success and we lost 10 people, we managed to drive them away but they have been coming back. I keep telling everyone we should go out in the woods and hunt them down. We can’t keep protecting the town, we have crops that need to get in the ground.”

  Adriana was doing a better job at hiding her dislike for the pair. “You're getting off topic.”

  “Ah yes. They came to town claiming they were looking for refuge as their house was raided by goblins two days prior and they had been on the run since.”

  ‘You believed them?” Bjorn asked.

  “I don’t see why we wouldn’t. Their clothes were torn, covered in blood, and they had those cuts and bruises. If you asked me it looked like they had been through hell and were looking for a safe place to stay until things calm down. The guy, I think his name is Ramsey, was hurt pretty badly, but he managed to make a rather remarkable recovery.”

  Maybe Bjorn was skeptical whenever it came to these people but he didn’t buy the story. This entire group had shown that they have the social skills enough to blend in to the crowd and not raise suspicion. He had little doubt in his mind that they were here with nefarious intentions. He just needed to find out what they were.

  “What do you mean they have been a great help in helping defend the city?” Adirana asked a bit of earnest in her voice.

  Freedrick took a large swig out of his tankard, wiped his mouth, then let out a belch. “Well Luna is some kind of spell caster I think. At least the things I have seen her do look magical. She has helped repel the goblin attacks several times. As for Ramsey he is a dervish with a blade. He doesn’t like to wear heavy armor but he is one hell of a swordsman. Their combined efforts have helped keep the city safe. As far as I am concerned they are able to stay for as long as they want.”

  By now Adriana knew everything that Bjorn knew about this group. She knew the next question that was burning in the back of Bjorn’s mind. “Has there been any disappearances over the last few weeks? You know people who have mysteriously disappeared?”

  “Now that you mention it there have been a few. Jeb, he was one of our farmers who left the walls a few days ago. He left with a group of 4 other farmers along with two of our guards. They were trying to go to the fields to the west they had work to do. If we don’t get the crops into the ground then we will be in trouble, especially come this fall, we won’t be able to pull in enough food for everyone.”

  He paused in his tale to quite blatantly ogle Luna. She and Ramsey had claimed a table at the other side of the room. He was sitting with his back against the wall, while Luna leaned over the table showing off her fit athletic frame and well toned ass and tail off for the whole room to see. Most were sneaking glances as she was a very attractive woman, she likely had dumped a good portion of her attributes into charisma as she was an unworldly beauty.

  “Focus. The whole group went missing?” Bjorn said.

  Freedrick’s focus returned to the table not because of Bjorn’s prompting. It was because Ramsey’s eyes fell on where the guard had been blatantly ogling the woman. He spoke something to Luna and she turned making eye contact with the man. She had a predatory smile on her face that Bjorn recognized for what it was. To the man’s lizard brain however it looked enticing and flirtatious. He quickly turned away trying to make it so it wasn’t so obvious that he was staring.

  “That’s the damndest thing. All of the farmers went missing. The guards however were found on the edge of the woods tied to a tree there. Their armors had been stripped off of them as well as their weapons.” His voice grew sober sounding and somber. “They found them with several puncture wounds on their bodies. More than that their sexes were mutilated." He gave a shudder. “In more than one way. It looked like they were raped and it looked like they suffered for it. Those fucking goblins.”

  “What do goblins have to do with that?” Bjorn said.

  Freedrick looked at Bjorn as if he was stupid. “Goblins love to rape their victims. They love hearing people squeal and plead and beg. They get a sick perverse joy out of their victims' attempts to fight back. The more you squirm they more aroused they get.” He paused speaking to spit on the ground. “That is all I have to say about that.”

  There was little doubt in his mind. Those deaths weren’t the actions of the goblins. What he described was exactly what Killian described that Luna liked to do to people. On top of that with what Ramsey did to Meira he was certain that he also got the same perverse pleasure out of mutilating people before they died.

  “Anyone else go m-” Bjorn stopped asking his question because he saw Freedrick sit up straighter and he straightened out his shirt trying to brush away any wrinkles on it in an ineffectual attempt. At the same time he watched Adriana’s body stiffen. His back was towards where Luna and Ramsey had been sitting.

  “What do we have here? New blood in town?” The sensual seductive voice that many found alluring but to Bjorn was just as revolting. She drug her hand across Bjorn’s back, trailing her fingers across his back as she walked around the table and pulled out a chair sitting down next to Bjorn. She pulled the chair over as close to Bjorn as she could sitting down with her knee touching his thigh.

  “Hey Luna.” Freedrick said. “This is Bjorn and Adriana. They are passing through. Though I have no idea where they are heading though. They saved my life, well particularly Bjorn did. He is an alchemist and he is the reason I am able to be walking right now.”

  Luna’s cat-like predatory eyes swept around the table drinking in all the details of the group before her. When Freedrick said the word alchemist her eyes finally settled on Bjorn. Her gaze turned hungry, as if he was a meal and she hadn’t eaten in years. It was a ravenous look.

  “An alchemist you say? How interesting.” She purred. “And you're only passing through? What’s the rush? What are you trying to get to?”

  Even with Bjorn’s hatred of this woman he felt compelled to answer her. The compulsion was so strong that there was no doubt in his mind, this had to be some sort of ability. As soon as he came to that conclusion the pressure to speak dramatically diminished. “We were heading east. My traveling companion and myself were planning on making it to the front and helping out the best we can.” He lied through his teeth, though it was not easy.

  For the first time since she came over here a slight frown appeared on her face. It was there for a moment and then gone, almost fast enough for Bjorn to think he was imagining it. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was staring at this woman he would have easily missed it.

  “Well why not stay for a few days? It is obvious that the two of you have been on the road for a while now. This town is safe. Relax for a bit before you continue onwards.” Luna stood back up from where she sat uncomfortably close to Bjorn and leaned in. Her hot breath on his ear as she whispered into it. “If you want, I think the two of us could have some fun together.” Her tone was heavy and sultry, it made Bjorn’s skin crawl. Before she pulled away she lightly bit Bjorn’s earlobe.

  She pulled away and left trailing her fingers across Bjorn’s back once again. It took every part of himself to not strike her down where she stood. He could see Adriana’s eyes wide in fear, or concern he couldn’t tell.

  Frederick’s mood had visibly soured. “Why did she pay so much attention to you? I am just as attractive as you are.”

  “I am new to town, so therefore I am interesting.” Bjorn said. “On second thought I might stay here a couple of days, as she said it has been a long road so far and this town seems as safe as it can get out here.”

  This proclamation was the tipping point for Freedrick. He didn’t hate Bjorn, not by a long shot. But his mind obviously went to the sultry woman who was in the corner again talking to Ramsey this time. They were talking almost animatedly about something. Bjorn couldn’t really keep and eye on them because of how he was sitting.

  Freedrick’s night was ruined, his mood fowled. So he got up from the table, excused himself and left the room. Adriana’s gaze kept switching between where the pair was sitting and Bjorn. Her eyes, suspicious.

  Bjorn gave her a look that said, not now. Let’s retire.

  Almost in unison they got up from where they sat and made their way through the room heading for the stairs leading up to the second floor. Bjorn could feel the eyes of Luna boring a hole in his back. It wasn’t hard to find their room as there were only 4 rooms total in this inn. It was a smaller town with not enough traffic to justify more rooms.

  The room was rather sparse by his standards, it was a far cry from the rooms in the palace. It was a small room just large enough to fit a single double wide bed and 2 chairs set in the corner with their backs to the wall. They got inside and immediately closed the door.

  As soon as the door was closed Adriana began speaking. “What the fuck w-”

  Bjorn shushed her by placing his finger on his lips. He then shook his head. She adopted an annoyed expression but Bjorn didn’t care. He began walking around the room casting his silence spell, ensuring that no one would be able to listen in on their conversation. He didn’t know how thin these walls really were but he didn’t want to chance someone overhearing.

  Once he finished casting his spell he relaxed visibly. “Go ahead.”

  She had been seething the entire time that Bjorn was safeguarding the room against eavesdroppers. In a slightly more measured tone that she started with last time. “What the fuck was that? You were flirting with her. Did Meira mean nothing to you?”

  This time it was Bjorn’s turn to get angry. “Don’t you dare take my actions tonight to say anything about what Meira meant to me. And if you actually paid attention to me instead of that monster then you would have noticed that I didn’t do anything back. I let her do the flirting, let her think she is sinking her claws into me. Do not doubt for a second that she is not going to get what she deserves. She will.”

  Bjorn walked around to the far side of the bed and placed his hands on either side of it and pushed, pushing the bed into place against the door. “It looked to me that you were enraptured by her. I don’t know if you noticed but I am pretty sure she has an ability that plays with people's emotions. If I was to guess it is empowered by her charisma stat, she has undoubtedly increased in level since I last saw her. I felt compelled to tell her why we were here, but my hatred for her must have protected me from the worst of it. You on the other hand looked like you couldn’t keep your eyes off of her.”

  “And finally don’t you ever talk about why we are here unless I have cast my silence spell. If they have been here for over a week there is a good chance that they have turned some of the city towards them. They more than likely have spies all over the place here. If they catch so much as a hint of why we are here then they will run, and our chance will be gone.”

  The fire in Adriana’s eyes faded. “You're right, I am sorry. Now that you mention it you were right, I don’t know why but my eyes were transfixed on her and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.”

  “It’s alright. We need a game plan.”

  “What should we do? We obviously need to find out more about them, why they are here, what they are doing, and why they are still here.”

  “There are some obvious answers to some of those questions.” Bjorn said.

  “Hold on. Let me think this through. The why and what are obvious. They are still trying to find people who can work on their and in their little town. It is also obvious that the missing farmers were taken by them.”

  “So that means?” Bjorn prompted.

  “That means that there are more than just the two of them here. There must be a camp in the woods or something as the two of them shouldn’t be able to restrain the 4 farmers that went missing. So one of our next steps should be finding the camp and finding out how many of them there are.”

  “Good.”

  “So the next question, why are they still here? also seems obvious. They are still here because they are either staking out more people or are trying to systematically go through the town and see who is worth abducting and taking back to their little town.”

  Bjorn gave an approving nod. “So that just leaves the last question you had. What do we do? I think divide and conquer should be the name of the game from here. I think we should keep you as far away from Luna as possible. Her ability is strong and I think you would be facing too much danger if she got too close to you. I am still in danger but it is less than I think you would be in. Therefore I think it would be in our best interest if you focused on Ramsey.”

  Adriana nodded. “I think I can do that.”

  “This is for more than one reason. I seriously doubt that I could stop myself from outright killing Ramsey. He was the one who killed Meira. I will make sure that his death is as painful as I can make it. With that being said I don’t know if I could stop myself in a fit of anger from killing him. I think that is a risk that isn’t worth taking.”

  “That is fair. So I will focus on town and try to find out if anyone else has gone missing, as well as try and get on Ramsey’s good side, and finally I will try and stake out where they have been staying and see if they have any habits that we can exploit. But I need to be wary of never being alone with him. He seems like the kind of person who has little to no self control. I think I could handle him but no need to take that risk if we don’t have to.”

  “Exactly.” Bjorn said. “And as for me, I will head out into the woods north west of here tomorrow and see if I can find tall tail signs of the camp and try and scout out how many people we have to deal with. Once I have that down I will help you in town with stalking them. Do you think you can handle not being suspicious while doing your tasks?”

  Adriana got a cocky smile on her face. “Oh yeah I can. It will be one of the easiest parts of my tasks. I didn’t spend most of my evenings in the spy office in Blackrock Bay for nothing.”

  “Alright then. I think it is time we head to bed. We go hunting in the morning.”

  In the morning Bjorn and Adriana both got up fairly early. After a quick bite to eat they took off to do their tasks. They both started heading towards the gate and at the next side street Adriana split off heading towards what looked like the city center. Bjorn made his way to the gate and gave a brief nod to the guards who were standing there. They made no motion to stop him.

  He walked out into the still slightly chilled morning suns and took in a deep breath. The air was crisp and clean. With a slight smile on his face he took off heading first west around the walls of the town and then north heading for the field where the farmers went missing. It didn’t take long before he was standing in the field.

  It was north of the town a fair distance. Not too far to stop people from being able to get help, but far enough away that he was out of sight of the walls and people stationed in the towers. It was the furthest north field the town had. It was the perfect place to ambush some unsuspecting guards based on what he could see with the other fields.

  Along one edge of the field was the large drop off down the ravine. The sheer cliff of the ravine made it difficult if not impossible to get at the field that way. On the other 3 sides were woods that ran all the way up to the edge of the field. It looked like the townsfolk thinned out the foliage underneath the trees so you could see a fair distance into the woods. Enough was cleared that anyone sneaking up on the woods would be seen a good distance away.

  This meant one of two things from here. Either that everyone who ambushed the guards and farmer detail were humans, elves, or other races of the sort. Or that they were surrounded. Bjorn very quickly ruled out the odds of it being goblins. He doubted it but it was unlikely that they were the ones at blame. The details of who were killed leaned too heavily into it being Kairon’s group.

  The next thing he was looking for was any signs of a struggle. After spending the better part of 3 hours searching the ground he couldn’t see anywhere where it was obvious that there had been any struggle. Before he left the town he had gotten a few more details about those who went missing, it happened 4 days prior. If Bjorn remembered correctly it had rained the day before that, meaning that if there had been any kind of scuffle it would show up in the mud. Instead all he found was two mostly human shaped indents in the mud.

  Stolen story; please report.

  This led him to the conclusion that the guards were ambushed or at least surprised when they were attacked. There were no other obvious signs of others being knocked down or spots where bodies had hit the ground. The next thing he noticed was there were more footprints than 5 people should have made. He could see at least 8 different sized footprints in the now drying mud.

  Now that he was certain it had to be humans and that it was no way goblins he now had to find them. He entered the woods and entered stealth. He then tried following the trail of foot prints in the mud that left the clearing heading west. He quickly ran into a dead end there, The thick canopy over head made it so the ground wasn’t saturated enough for footprints to be left. On top of that even if it was saturated enough there was enough grass, shrubs, and undercover that it stabilized the ground enough that footprints wouldn’t show up in the mud.

  It looked like the prints were going in a north-northwest direction when the trail ran cold and the prints in the ground disappeared so he started to explore that way. He spent the rest of that day making sweeps across the forest floor heading north-northwest of the field looking for any kind of sign of a camp or group. As he moved further away from the field he began making wider arcs.

  He only stopped the search when the suns were starting to near the horizon. Bjorn gave up for that day and made his way back to town as quickly as he could. The day was mostly useless, except that he got a few rarer herbs that he came across while searching. Hopefully tomorrow will be more fruitful. When he made it back to the gate they were in the process of closing it for the night. They almost locked Bjorn out for the night if it wasn’t for one of the guards recognizing him and letting him in.

  From there Bjorn made his way back to the Inn where he found Adriana sitting at a corner table being talked to by two of the younger men in town. From the sounds they were making they were trying rather ineffectually to flirt with Adriana. Who for her part was doing her best to try and make them understand that she wasn’t interested in them, or what they had to say.

  “Ah there you are Bjorn.” Adriana said, lighting up at seeing him walk towards the table.

  One of the more brazen boys started speaking before turning around. “Look pal. This young lady is already taken why don’t you take a hik-” He cut off what he was saying when he turned around fully and saw Bjorn standing there. He wasn’t the most intimidating man in the village but he was a close second. Bjorn had a look about him as if he knew what he was doing, he moved with a sure grace that looked like he was posed for violence, and to back it all up he was close to 6’4” now and probably 240 lbs of solid muscle.

  Bjorn cleared his throat. “You were saying?”

  The dumber one was about to say something but the other one took in both Bjorn’s appearance as well as the clearly displayed weapons attached over his body. He placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Not now, let’s go.” He practically had to drag the boy away from the table.

  Bjorn sat down in the seat next to Adriana with his back to the wall so he could see the rest of the tavern. It was still early in the evening and there were only a few people in the room. A lot less than the day before. “Friends of yours?”

  “Hardly. They saw me exploring the city today and decided it was their duty to make sure that I didn’t have to explore it alone. Even though I made it abundantly clear that I would have preferred to travel alone.”

  “Any luck?” Bjorn asked.

  “A little, but none of that now.” He expertly decided to avoid talking about what she found today until they were alone again. For the rest of their meal they small talked amongst themselves. Near the end of the meal Luna and Ramsey came into the room. Luna was putting on a show today, she was wearing a crop top shirt which showed off more than her ample cleavage. She was wearing a pair of leggings that sat low on her hips just barely hiding her navel and the top of her ass crack. She had put on some kind of makeup. Then the pair sat at a table directly across from Bjorn and Adriana and she sat there staring at Bjorn. She kept leaning over the table flashing even more of her mostly exposed breasts. Even though he tried his best he couldn’t help but keep glancing down at her cleavage.

  On a hunch Bjorn used his W.A.I.L.A. on her. He could have sworn that from across the room he saw her frown as soon as he activated his ability.

  That explained why he was struggling to restrain himself. She had leveled twice as well as gaining a profession. He didn’t know exactly but a Seductress was but he was willing to put money on that it involved seducing people. He could only guess as to what type of talents she got with her profession. As odd as it seemed, him knowing about her profession helped him resist some of her temptation. However Adriana was struggling he could tell, as well as everyone else in the room was as well.

  Before Adriana had a chance to succumb to her powers Bjorn grabbed her by her face and wrenched around so she was looking at Bjorn. “Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.” She complied. “Good now, open your eyes and look into mine.”

  When she did he could see her body visibly relaxing. As if every muscle in her body was taut ready to jump towards Luna. These emotion manipulating professions were dangerous. He decided right then and there that he needed to find a way to protect himself from these kinds of manipulations. That was when he realized that he already had some protection with his benefit from Inner peace. It was actually probably doing more work for him than he realized it was.

  Bjorn then grabbed Adriana by the arm and led her from the room. He would have told her they needed to get out of there but he wasn’t really confident that she would follow after Bjorn as he left.

  They made it up the stairs and into the room. Once the door was closed Bjorn pushed the bed against the door, and then he started casting his silence spell, once finished he turned around. There he found Adriana sitting in the corner of the room, her knees up against her chest as her entire body shook.

  “How? How do you resist so well?” She asked, her voice thick with vulnerability.

  Bjorn slowly made his way over to where she sat and joined her. As he slid in place next to her he began speaking in a calming even tone. “There are a number of reasons, all of them adding up to me being able to resist. The first one being my hatred for her and anyone to do with that group. The second one being that I have a higher charisma attribute than you do, I have little doubt in my mind that is playing a factor. And finally the last reason is because of a skill that I got. I don’t know how to pass it on to you but we can try a few exercises if you want.”

  Bjorn spent the next 2 hours, pausing his explanation occasionally to refresh his silence spell when it came off cooldown, trying to explain the esoteric feeling he got from his inner peace skill, as well as how to potentially replicate the feeling. She didn't seem to be having any luck. However it did seem to have the effect of calming her down. She slowly got her breathing under control and the shivering started to stop. If he didn't know any better he could have sworn that she was an addict suffering from withdrawal.

  “Thank you.” She said her voice sounded exhausted. “I had the feeling that I wanted to give her everything. That I wanted her to dominate me, both physically and sexually. I wanted to hate her but at that moment I loved every part of her.” She shuddered at the thought. “If you hadn't gotten me out of there I would have done anything and everything I could to make her happy.” She stopped speaking for a moment and in a small voice she said. “She is too dangerous, I don't think I am ready for this. Maybe joining you was a mistake.”

  Bjorn looked down at his traveling companion. For the first time in a while he didn't see the budding strong woman she was growing into. Instead he saw the small just barely 18 year old girl. She lost the confidence she had started to gain in herself.

  He was torn, on one hand he wanted to comfort her and tell her everything would be alright, but he couldn't promise that. On the other hand he wanted her to accept that Bjorn had been right telling her not to come. So he decided to go somewhere in the middle.

  “To be perfectly frank you are way outside of your depth. You are constantly at risk by being on this journey with me. But we are too far along to safely return you somewhere where you would be safe.” He could see her visibly wilt even more under his words. “That being said. I too am out of my depth. I don't know how we are going to accomplish this. The task seems almost impossible. I sometimes think that our task is futile, that one or both of us will die in our attempt to avenge my family.”

  He could see she was looking up at his by now. He could see her Bloodshot eyes where she had been crying out of his peripheral vision. He didn't look at her, he continued to look forward. “But don't think for a second that you coming along was a mistake. If not for you my quest would have ended before it really started. Not even a month into this I got sick if you remember you hauled me for several days to get me the help I needed.”

  She perked up slightly at that. “More than that you are the reason I get to sleep at all. Knowing you are keeping watch helps put my mind at ease and allows me to sleep through the night.”

  “But you don't sleep nearly as long as I do.” Adriana retorted. The fact that she was now starting to object meant she was going in the right direction. She still hadn’t fully recovered but his words were having an effect.

  “That is because I need considerably less sleep than you do each night. Even more than that you have helped me spot things that I would have missed. There is a reason why the saying “Safety in numbers.” is a thing. Having you along hasn’t been a mistake.”

  A silence grew between the pair. Adriana was deep in thought and Bjorn could tell so he sat there and let her stew in her own mind. Eventually she roused herself from her musings and spoke. “I didn’t find out much more than we were able to find out last night.”

  “Oh?”

  “There haven't been any more disappearances. No one has seen anything suspicious outside of the occasional goblin attack and raid. There was a small part of me that thought that maybe the goblins and our quarry were related somehow. Now however I am convinced that it is purely coincidence. I spent most of today exploring the town while trying to follow either Ramsey or Luna.” She let out another small shudder. “I don’t think they caught wind that they were being followed, but Luna did make eye contact with me once, smiled, then she went about her day.”

  She let out a small yawn before continuing. “I didn’t really get enough of a view on the pair of them to find out any kind of habit. The only one that I was able to find out is that in the evening usually at least one, sometimes both come to the tavern and spend a few hours drinking and talking mostly amongst themselves. Occasionally if someone new comes to town they start up a conversation with the newcomer. Other than that I did find out which house they were staying in. There are the only ones in the building.”

  Bjorn chewed on his lip as she spoke. “I think we should accelerate our plan.” He finally broke in. “I know we were planning on a few days, but now I think it would be in our best interest to try and pounce tomorrow night. Luna’s abilities and talents are too much of an unknown force for us. I don’t want to chance them catching wind of what we are doing.”

  “That’s probably for the best. What about you, did you have any luck out in the woods?”

  “No. I searched around a 2 mile swath around where the tracks disappeared and I haven’t come across anything else to hint at the camp. I think we are still on the right path though. There is no way the two of them were able to restrain the three farmers.” He paused as a thought just came to him. “That is unless Luna’s weird powers were able to affect the farmers and get them to come with them. But there were too many footprints. I don’t know, I hate this mental shit.”

  Bjorn paused as he thought about how obnoxious all of this shit was. “Tomorrow I think I will spend another day searching the woods but I won’t be out there as long tomorrow as I was today. As for you I think Ramsey and Luna are a couple and are swingers. At least based on their sexual proclivities. With that being said, maybe tomorrow night at the tavern you should try and slip this into his meal, maybe both if you can.” Bjorn reached into his bag and placed a vial on the floor they were sitting on.

  “What is this?”

  “A slow acting sleep potion. If ingested 3 hours later the target will fall into a fitful sleep. It is honestly a terrible potion and its effects can be fought off with a high enough constitution attribute. But it will at least put him out, which means we only have to deal with Luna.”

  “What are we going to do for that?”

  Bjorn just smiled and explained his plan for the pair of them.

  The next morning just like the day before Adriana and Bjorn went their separate ways early in the morning. Adriana had a few things she needed to prepare for tonight and Bjorn went back to searching the woods.

  His day was largely fruitless as he spent another annoying day slowly combing through the woods to find nothing. Frustrated, he called the day early as he too had a few things he wanted to prepare for the evening when they would try and take the pair as silently as they could.

  Bjorn was walking back towards town, walking through the woods, taking the straight path back instead of the clear way back. He wasn’t concerned about a few goblins. However when he got close to the edge of the forest leading back to town something felt off. He couldn’t quite place his finger on it and he slowly drew his dagger from his back, going on high alert while trying to not show it at all.

  “I hoped you would stick me with a different kind of dagger.” Luna’s sultry voice came from behind one of the trees. Once she started speaking she nonchalantly stepped out from behind the tree. She was wearing the same outfit she had been wearing the night before only this time it was a different color.

  Instead of relaxing his body tensed up as he was prepared to start to fight his own body and emotions as they tried to tell him to just give in. “Hi Luna, what are you doing out here?” Bjorn said, trying to keep his voice even. It wouldn’t do to make his move now, tonight would be their best time and chance to do so.

  “I could ask you the same thing.” She said with a purr. “I was trying to find you for the last two days, it’s almost as if you are trying to hide from me.” She said with a pout.

  “Nothing like that. I am running low on some herbs and figured the forest around here would be thick with them.”

  Luna pushed off of the tree where she had been doing her best to lean against as enticing as possible. “I hope that isn’t the only thing that is thick out here.” She sashayed over to Bjorn and none to suggestively put her hands on his chest as they tried to explore his body. As she stood close she tried pushing her breasts into him, one hand traveling south.

  Bjorn grabbed her hands as they were trying to move across his body and he took a step back. “I am flattered that a pretty girl like you has shown me some interest but now is not the time.”

  Another pout, this one seeming more genuine than the last. “Why not now? We are alone out here. What time would be better than now?”

  But Bjorn wasn’t paying attention to her words or actions, he had slowly maneuvered himself around Luna and withdrew his hands from around her wrists. “What about Ramsey, isn’t he your husband?” Bjorn said as he started to walk off.

  Luna called after him as he was walking away. “He doesn’t matter.”

  Bjorn wasn’t swayed by her words. “You can’t stay away from me forever.” She called after him.

  “You will get your time with me Luna, just not yet.” He said under his breath.

  When he made it back to the tavern Adriana was sitting at a table with Ramsey. She was talking to him and making it seem natural, like she didn’t hate his guts. It was a commendable performance. When she saw Bjorn she got up from the table with Ramsey and made her way over to Bjorn.

  “Did you?” He said to her when his back was turned away from Ramsey’s table. She nodded.

  They spent around an hour down in the main room of the tavern. After that Ramsey got up from his seat in the tavern and made his way out of the room. Around 10 minutes later Bjorn and Adriana left the room as well only they went up the stairs and into their room. They did the same pattern as the night before and pushed the bed against the door.

  There was a window in the room that was just barely large enough to fit Bjorn’s wide shoulders out. After a few minutes of struggling they were both down on street level. The streets were dark and dead, just to be safe they both dawned cloaks that matched the pitch black of the night. They were in luck as no moons were out this night. They entered stealth and began worming their way through the streets with Adriana in the lead. Soon they were outside of their house.

  They wanted to stake out the house and make sure that both Luna and Ramsey were inside the building before they pounced. They also wanted to make sure they both had plenty of time to fall asleep before they broke in. So they settled in to wait.

  2 hours after they settled in, something unexpected happened. Luna came walking down the street. The path she was taking would take her right by where Bjorn and Adriana were stealthed just out of sight, on a small pile of wood. Hopefully the low light and the distracted look on Luna’s face would be enough that she wouldn’t spot them.

  When she got level with their hiding place a thick stench of sweat, body odor, and just a smell of sex wafted over to them. Her clothes were rumpled and her hair was a mess. Clearly she had just been laid and she was still riding the high as she walked right past them none the wiser.

  Bjorn let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. She walked right up to the front door and began fumbling in her cleavage trying to find the key. In that moment Bjorn made an impulsive move. He stored his cloak as quietly as he could and began stalking forward. It was only 15 feet or so that he needed to cross.

  She wasn’t tipped off. Finally she withdrew the key from her cleavage and inserted it in the door. There came an audible click and the door began to swing inward. During that time Bjorn had been creeping forward. The sound of the wooden door swinging on leather hinges was enough for Bjorn to make it the rest of the way.

  He raised his hand high and brought it down with all of his strength on the back of her neck. She went limp, he caught her under her arms, then singled to Adriana. Then he drug her unconscious body into the house.

  (If you don’t care about skill gain you may skip to the next chapter.)

  This is the skill gains over the last two months

  There are few things in this world that deal with magic that is as difficult as restraining mana that wants to take shape as a spell. Somehow you were able to accomplish this task. You have gained the skill: Delayed Casting. Don’t be fooled by the name this skill is as much an art as it is a skill.

  You have increased your skill level in your skill: Delayed casting, reaching level 2. The duration at which you can hold back the mana before it becomes unstable is 2 seconds.

  You have advanced your skill level in climbing. reaching skill level 9. Scaling objects with handholds has become 54% easier.

  Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in grappling. Reaching skill level 3. The effectiveness of your strength is increased by 3% while in a grapple.

  Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in: Inner peace. Reaching skill level 18. Your emotional stability has increased by 18%. Your resistance to mental manipulation has increased by 9%

  You have advanced your skill level in stealth, reaching skill level 19. You will now be 56% harder to spot while stealthing.

  Congratulations you have advanced in the skill: Survival, you are now skill level 14. You are now more likely to see dangerous situations before you are in them.

  You have advanced your skill level in healing, reaching skill level 9. Wounds that you treat will heal 13.5% faster.

  You have advanced your skill level in fire magic. reaching skill level 6. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.

  You have advanced your skill level in tracking, reaching skill level 15. The tracks that creatures leave as they travel through the world make just a little more sense to you.

  You have advanced in your skill Teaching. You have reached skill level 3. The rate at which you are able to impart knowledge to a student is increased by 15%

  You have advanced your skill level in herb-lore. reaching skill level 26. The efficacy of plants and herbs you collect will increase by 78%.

  Congratulations you have advanced from a novice herbalist to an apprentice herbalist. You have gained a perk. You gain the ability to see the rank of alchemical components just by sight.

  You have advanced your skill level in swordsmanship, reaching skill level 14. Your attacks with swords now deal 68% more damage over base value.

  You have advanced your skill level in archery, reaching skill level 30. Damage from arrows you shoot is increased by 45% over base damage.

  You have advanced your skill level in Light Armor, reaching skill level 11. When wearing light armor your defensive value for the light armor is increased by 11%.

  Congratulations you have advanced from a beginner light armor fighter to a novice light armor fighter. You have gained a perk. You gain 4% increased movement speed while wearing a full set of light armor.

  You have advanced your skill level in small blades, reaching skill level 13. Your attacks with daggers and knives now deal 26% more damage over base value. Additionally critical strikes done with your small blades will deal 26% more damage.

  Congratulations you have advanced from beginner to novice in your skill: Small blades. You have gained a perk. You have gained a small chance to see critical weaknesses in your opponents defenses. Hitting these critical weaknesses lands you a guaranteed critical hit.

  Congratulations you have advanced your skill: War leader, reaching skill level 9. The bonus offered by this skill is not a static thing. Spend your war points to gain your bonuses.

  You have advanced your skill level in light magic. reaching skill level 18. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.

  You have advanced your skill level in earth magic. reaching skill level 17. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.

  You have advanced your skill level in water magic. reaching skill level 23. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.

  You have advanced your skill level in dark magic. reaching skill level 9. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.